Symco Shakedown low-down

Catchy title, huh? After a week of being back home, I think I'm finally unwound now.  Everything is accounted for, unpacked and followed up on.  It was a great four day weekend.  Weather was perfect.  Girls were gorgeous.  Vintage campers and bicycles were everywhere this year.  Bands were rocking.  How long should I keep this up?  Cars were chopped, channeled and shaved.  Met up with old friends; made new friends.  Truly an awesome experience.

My August apron really came in handy!

Thursday afternoon Hank and I rolled in and set-up camp.  Without the kids, the ole '68 Scotty felt downright spacious!  My mother babysat the kids and the sheep at the Homestead for us.  It was a welcomed weekend for Hank and I; we got to step out of the parenting role for a few days. 


Friday morning was stage prep for the pin-up contest.  I had purchased two pieces of stretch lace in 7-8 yards lengths at the thrift store.  We used these to swag the backdrop of the stage.  Now that's it's all done, I think I may make them into a peignore set!

Two thirds of the stage was used for the pin-ups while the other open space to the right was for the band.  A doorway was created in the middle.  As each girl was introduced by the hostess, she entered at center stage, stepped up on the platform and did her best pin-up poses.  Cameras were everywhere!  But I get ahead of myself...

...late Friday afternoon we hosted a calendar signing with the pin-ups from last year's contest.  It was great to have all the girls back together again.  Miss Symco 2011, Sweet Pea, is seated in the center of the photo, wearing the red hat.

Friday at midnight I helped organize the first annual Symco Shakedown Burlesque Show.  Our three performers were fantastic, and the show went over very well.  But I didn't get to bed until almost 2am.

Saturday morning came much too early, but the with all the extra hands I had helping me, things went smoothly all day.  The photo at the left is me changing into my "fancy shoes" just before the contest.  I found a pair of those clear plastic, rhinestone heels at the thrift store.  I was surprised at how comfortable they were.  Didn't use a single one of my band-aids!

The pin-up contest went off without a hitch.  Twenty-eight beautiful ladies, one gorgeous hostess (seated, wearing the embroidered peasant top) and my Hometown Victory Girls, Wild Kat and Peachie.

And Miss Symco 2012 is Apocalypse Meow!  More photos on the facebook page.

 
After the contest wrapped up, the top twelve placing girls went onto the grounds to take calendar shots with our photographers.  Shooting finished around 2pm on Saturday, and finally my work was done.  Hank and I could relax.  See those smiles of relief!  lol

Next time I'll blog about my dress, but yes, I did make it using a late '50s pattern. The ivory bodice has a small floral print with flock flowers (!) and the skirt is a sheer nylon.  Unfortunately my crinoline kept sliding down all day and peeking out the bottom.  But it was comfortable and flouncy!

Here's Hank and my best friend, Samantha, chilling on my '50 Ford.  Hank's red Chevy is parked next to it.

And now I'm back on the homestead, picking beans and gathering school supplies.  Time to check the flannel nighties to see if they'll last another winter and decide which sheep to breed this fall.  The weekend was fun while it lasted.  Symco really steps you out of reality for a few days; the cars, the clothes, the music.  I guess you could argue that it's just a bunch of adults playing dress-up.  But boy, until you've experienced it, you don't know what you're missing.

Apron Challenge: August

Some of you might know that when I'm not strolling through the pasture, adoring my little lambies, I organize a pin-up contest for the Symco Shakedown.  During the second weekend of August, hundreds of traditionally built hot rods and customs descend upon the crossroads town of Symco, Wisconsin.  Two days full of cars, swap, rockabilly music and mini-bike drags.  And kicking off the Saturday morning line up is a pin-up contest showcasing the classic glamour of the 1940s and 50s.  Seems to me like the perfect occasion for an apron...

So this month I channeled my inner rockabilly pin-up and decided on a small black apron with black lace ruffled trim.  I used the Miss Symco logo to make a patch pocket.  This should come in handy when I'm backstage handing out bobby pins, directing photographers, tallying scores and answering frantic, last minute cell phone calls.

The pin-up contest is a lot of work.  When I was first approached about organizing this, my thought was, "Put some pretty girls on stage...the audience applauds for a winner...there you go!"  It's not quite that simple.  Our top twelve winners are featured in a calendar so immediately following the show, the girls have their photos taken on the grounds.  And this year I've added a calendar signing with the 2012 girls, and a rehearsal with this year's thirty contestants.  It's a lot prep; lining up contestants, sponsors, judges, photographers, an emcee, a band to play between the rounds and backstage volunteers.  But I've made a lot of friends along the way, and everyone seems to have a great time!

So Peepshow, my '50 Ford Shoebox, is ready for the weekend.  Hank and I drive separately.  He tows the camper, and I'm loaded down with crinolines and shoes.  She still doesn't have an interior, but I did have time (in between lambing and baling hay) to sew up a new seat cover.  It's black and very boring, but will have to do until I can find upholstery to match those swanky pink sun visors I made.

Admittedly, a car is the best accessory ever!

I'll be sure to take some photos of the car show and the pin-up contest to share next time.  If you're interested in a few photos from past years, check out the Symco Shakedown website or the Miss Symco website. 

My Pin-Up Kitchen Towels

I guess my favorite room of the house must be the kitchen.  I spend a lot of time in there.  Like most homes, it's the hub of activity.  A while back I took you on an official tour, but today I wanted to share my pin-up towels.  I've posted a couple of these in other places so I apologize for those of you who've seen them before.

I cannot take the credit for this idea.  I ran across an article in the Christmas 2012 issue of Country Living magazine.  EllynAnne Geisel, owner of Apron Memories, had shared her collection of vintage towels.  One embroidered towel featured the back view of a lady with a plaid skirt.  One flick of the finger lifted her skirt to reveal her panties underneath!  It was positively scandalous!

My first attempt was this girl holding a wooden spoon.  I used a Vargas pin-up drawing as inspiration for the basic body, and then added the details to make her look like the 'girl next door.'  The red panties underneath are made with a single layer of netting, stitched down with the embroidery.  And the skirt is attached only at the waist.

My second towel was a gift for a friend of mine who dances burlesque, Miss Lolita Haze.  This peek-a-boo technique lends itself perfectly to burly-q.  Using the same body, I stitched platinum blonde hair, no panties and feather fans.  Instead of rick rack edging, I used lush lace.    All that's missing are the rhinestones!

Along came another friend's birthday (Wild Kat from Hometown Victory Girls), and I again tweaked the pattern to fit the recipient.  This time I added a paint brush, pallet and a cherry print skirt to match Kat's kitchen. 

Well, after giving two away, I decided that I needed to stitch up a shepherdess for my own kitchen.  I used fabric scraps and gave her a full dress instead of just a skirt.  And of course BoPeep needed boots and a crook to finish off her outfit. 

By simply changing the position of the arms and the accessories, these pin-up towels can be tailored to any person or occasion.  Embroidered towels are a must for any farmhouse kitchen, but who says they have to feature dancing spoons or grocery-shopping kittens?

BoPeep Collectibles

As my 'BoPeep' identity has taken shape over the past years, I'm always on the look-out for sheep-related items.  I'm especially interested in vintage pieces (shocking, I know) and tend to avoid the primitive, folk-art sheep.  No offense to those of you who collect primitives.  I've seen a lot of tempting ones, but it's just not my style.  Here are a few of my favorites...

One of the first pieces I got was the 1960s MIRRO mold from my mother.  Every Easter I bake up the most delicious Yoda cake you've ever seen!  I'm not so great with detailed frosting, and all the features sort of disappear under that layer of buttercream.

I purchased this 1916 sheet music off etsy a couple of years back.  It's framed and hanging by my 1922 piano.  The same piano that is putting way too much stress on the ole floor joists, and who's favorite song is 'Chopsticks,' plunked out by my kids.

While this next one is technically a Little Boy Blue print, I had to make an exception.  It's a 1947 advertisement for Life Bras by Formfit.  The poem reads,

Little Boy Blue,
Awake from your sleep.
The girl of your dreams
is bewitching your sheep.

How does she do it?
That's plain to see;
It's the glamour she gets
from her Life Bras three.

From morn, 'til night,
At work, at play,
Be a dream girl too
The Formfit way.

At a local rummage sale, I found this sweet little lamb mold.  He's only 5x7 and looks great hanging above my stove.

Yet another etsy purchase was a cover from an early '40s notebook.  It is an appointment book, printed by Brown and Bigelow, for a rubber company out of Missouri.  Fun fact: SNAFU and FUBAR were terms coined during the Second World War.  And we think we're so smart these days?!

I also seem to have a growing stand-alone collection of BoPeep Ammonia bottles.  I purchased one of the glass ones and received the other two from friends. Now, of course, I'm on the look out for other versions.

And some of you may have seen these before - my peek-a-boo pin-up towels.  I've made a few different versions for friends, and it was only a matter of time before I made a BoPeep one!  I used pink scraps from a dress I made last summer.  She's hanging above my stove, too.

I also have a few of the standard fare prints, shepherd girls out in the pasture, that sort of thing.  A small stuffed Lambchop (from the famous Shari Lewis duo) sits on a shelf in my sewing room.  I typically rescue orphaned lamb figurines from disbanded Nativity sets and tuck them about.  My collection is not overpowering.  It's a subtle reminder that there is a flock of sheep, just outside my door, that are always ready for a little ear-scratching.

Book Review: Blonde

Blonde, by Joyce Carol Oates (Harper Collins, 2000), was one of the thickest books I've tackled in a long time.  Topping out at 738 pages, I found myself reading in the mornings while I waited for the washer to spin out, in the afternoons while supper was simmering, and in the evenings while Hank watched American Ninja Warrior.  It was one of those novels that pulls you in, regardless of the fact that you already know the ending, and holds you until the last chapter.  I've read several other biographies on Marilyn Monroe and knew early on that this version would erase all the glitz and expose the gritty side of Marilyn's glamorous life.

Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates

Oates' writing style is casual and flowing.  Several of the chapters are nothing but dialogue between Marilyn and Arthur Miller (her third husband).  Some sections included only Marilyn's stream of consciousness.  And throughout the entire narrative, her thoughts were interjected to give readers an understanding of her perception of the events taking place around her.  This writing style provided a well-rounded view of the whole picture while maintaining an intimate connection with Marilyn and a window into her emotional state.

Oates' did not intend the book to be biographical.  Some names were changed, and some key characters were left out altogether, most notably Lee and Paula Strasberg.  However, I believe the emotional undercurrent was true to Marilyn's life.  It is widely held that off-camera, she had no self-esteem.  She desperately needed to be loved, desperately wanted a baby, and was easily swayed by the ambitions of those around her.  On-camera she was dynamite.  Cast and crew, spell-bound, stopped and watched.  No matter their years of experience (as with Laurence Olivier or Clark Gable); no matter their purported indifference to her beauty; or their pure exasperation (aka, hatred) of unprofessionalism on set.  It was reported by all that her ability could only be classified as genius. 

This book explores her desire to balance her normal life as Norma Jean with her powerful Hollywood career as Marilyn Monroe.  Despite her scarred upbringing by a psychotic mother, followed by years in the foster system, the reader hopes against hope that this young starlet will triumph.  But as Norma Jean falls deeper into the grips of drugs and loses herself in the champagne, the reader weeps for the lost innocence and steels themselves for the next movie premiere at which Marilyn Monroe is put on display.  It is a powerful narrative and a must-read for anyone looking to round out their knowledge of her life.

Project List...again

Just a peek at a few more of the projects I've been working on.  Seems I have deviated slightly from dressmaking these days.  But the winter months just don't inspire me as much.  Maybe a pair of wool pants is in order, but eh, I can get by.  These quirky projects stretched my creativity a bit more than banging out another pair of pants from the old tried-and-true pattern.

Project #1:  My daughter has just decided that she wants to be a vet when she grows up.  This stems from her ever-increasing love of horses.  Oy vey!  Do you realize how much more hay we're going to have to put up?!  Well, for her birthday last month, I sewed up a doctor's bag.  I used scraps of white wool and leftover red bias binding.  It has a magnetic snap in the closure and measures approximately 8" tall by 12" wide.  It was a hit.  Perhaps she can start doctoring the calves . . .

Project #2:  I don't know any farmer who doesn't have bags and bags of used baler twine sitting around the barn.  Seriously, we have 50# dog food bags crammed with the stuff!  Yes, I've seen the Boy Scouts make rope out of it, but I'm just not in the market for lassos right now . . . not yet, anyway.  So I decided to take my crochet hook to this lone spool of twine because I am in the market for more outdoor rugs.

Technically this isn't "used" twine, but one orphan spool is not very useful (for those of you who aren't familiar with the inner workings of a baler, you have to have two spools working together to tie up your bales of hay).  It is a bit stiff, but I don't have to deal with all the knots that would be in used twine.  I'm doing a single crochet and will go until I run out. 

Project #3:  Because my first peek-a-boo pin-up towel turned out pretty well, I had try another one.  This time I went for a more risque pin-up.  This platinum blonde fan dancer has no need for a wooden spoon.  :) 

I perfected my embroidery stitch a bit so the outline is cleaner and her face turned out much nicer.  I also used lace on the hem as rickrack was just too 'domestic' for this beauty.  For a look at the original 1950s towel that inspired these, check out EllynAnne Geisel's blog on her vintage linens.

And as was true with many of the fan dancers of the 1930s, this girl is sans her sheer panties.  I really enjoyed making this towel as the peek-a-boo concept lends itself perfectly to the type of girl.  I think I need to do a BoPeep pin-up with a shepherd's crook next (and ruffled undies). 

Elvgren : Art and Inspiration

Gil Elvgren (March 15, 1914 – February 29, 1980) is perhaps the most widely recognized pin-up artist of his era.  Best known for his iconic calendar prints produced over a 30 year span for Brown and Bigelow, Elvgren's work has come to define the ideal female form.  Below are several shots of his art and inspiration from those years.

In studying the photos versus the drawings, you can see how he repositioned the girls' shoulders or feet just slightly to make a more flirty, if not physically feasible, posture.  Bosoms are angled to reveal more cleavage, and chins are tipped to give a more coy glance.  Ironic that today we are so up in arms about magazines that airbrush models while it seems that touch-ups are nothing new!  But then isn't beauty almost always an effort to achieve the ideal?

And the winner is...

If you were lucky enough to be in attendance this past weekend, you witnessed firsthand the most excellent pin-up contest ever!  Okay, I’m a little biased, but honestly, these girls brought their best to our stage and set the bar higher than anyone expected.  Saturday morning at the Symco Shakedown dawned with overcast skies and mist in the air, but no one’s spirits were dampened.  All of our twenty-three contestants took the stage, smiling and waving, to the sheer delight of our audience. 

Cherry Blossom

Ruby Gem

Wild Kat

Round One was a feast for the eyes as each contestant introduced herself and showed off her best pin-up poses.  Hankies were fluttering to the ground; tops of back-seamed stockings were revealed; kisses were blown in abundance.  One after another, the girls gave it their all, but the judges had to narrow the field to the Top Twelve.

Twiddle

Carmen Lee

Wrenchin' Wendy

Round Two brought the Top Twelve girls back onstage to answer questions from the judges.  Would you rather date Fonzi or Richie Cunningham?  And why?  Do you prefer Chuck Taylors or Stilettos?  And why?  It was a peek into the vintage culture that these beautiful girls brought to life.  Again the judges narrowed the field to the Final Five.

Top Twelve Miss Symco Calendar Girls

Round Three was when the audience got to voice their opinion.  Audience applause combined with the judges’ rankings determined our winner . . . and I’m proud to announce that Miss Symco 2011 is Sweet Pea (#18)!  Second runner up is Scarlet Fever (#5)!  Third runner up is January Lee (#13)!  Fourth place held by Bettie May (#15)!  And our fifth place is Fanny Freckles (#11)! 

Top Five Contestants

Sweet Pea

Sweet Pea, our Miss Symco 2011 Winner!

Lolita Haze

Congratulations to all of the contestants that graced our stage!  And a big thank you to our judges, our sponsors, and the ever lovely Lolita Haze, our emcee!  Finally, I would personally like to thank everyone who worked behind the scenes, supporting me and making this such a great event.  

All Twenty Three Miss Symco Contestants